tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7485677035908306929.post3700392948636558228..comments2024-02-10T03:48:46.059-05:00Comments on THE CHARLEBOIS POST - CANADA: creating a/broad, November 9, 2013Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7485677035908306929.post-63325857878334542352013-11-09T17:59:26.322-05:002013-11-09T17:59:26.322-05:00"Where are the partners of the women doing th..."Where are the partners of the women doing those motherhood shows you talk about?" - with regards to Mom's the Word - I don't know. I don't know any of the participants well enough, but I'll ask. But those women did travel the world. I doubt their kids were with them the whole time. <br /><br />With Motherlode, the one couple I'm close with, she's out of town for two months, rehearsing another play, he's staying home with the kids being a full time dad. I'll check on this, but I'm pretty sure all of the women creating that show are partnered with full time artists. So my guess is that they've learned to juggle childcare duties, as they each take gigs when they come, and/or when they've blocked off time to create their own. <br /><br />"THIS is the machine. Fuck the Hollywood machine. We are not post-modern anything, any more than America became post-racist just because of President Obama." - again, I agree. But, (being completely redundant here) steps are being taken. Things are far from perfect. and there's a tremendous way to go. and the thing that I see as driving the change: women making art that's so good that it can't be resisted. <br /><br />I got in a conversation about this (because of this article) on Facebook, and let me quote from that (and these aren't my words): <br /><br />"Change starts with a single voice that becomes a deafening roar. We need the art that costs nothing to make because those who effect change are doing so exactly because they don't have the support of the existing system, so they likely don't have the money that is the system's lifeblood. But this has to happen in all corners of society. On the stage, on the web, in the theatres, on TVs, in the workplace, on the corner, in the conversations you have before you go to bed. It can start anywhere, but the ambition must be for it to spread everywhere. So let's not talk about the system not producing the kind of art we want to see. Let's talk about MAKING the art we want to see and making it so well that it can't be ignored, that it attracts followers and expands to all corners of society until it BECOMES the system. And then let's talk about making more, and teaching others to make more. It takes time, often generations, and it necessitates all involved understanding that the goal isn't to change theatre or entertainment, it's to change how people perceive the world around them."TJ Dawehttp://www.tjdawe.canoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7485677035908306929.post-43918066375240756802013-11-09T17:58:39.295-05:002013-11-09T17:58:39.295-05:00hey C,
"There remains indifference or dismis...hey C,<br /><br />"There remains indifference or dismissal or outright hostility to women’s work—on the part of the reviewers, and the bookers, and the audience, and other performers, too" - I agree. This is a shadow in the arts circles and other seemingly progressive circles, and a shadow in the true sense of the word - unseen, unconsidered. I have guy friends who never read novels by women. Or who've never watched a single episode of Sex and the City, despite it being their partner's favourite show. My own book and music collection is very much weighted toward men (I explored this blind spot of mine in another article on another site: http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/1148-unless).<br /><br />It's better in the world of spoken word. And indie rock. I don't have stats, and maybe the stats would still show favouritism towards men, but it's at least marginally better there than in other circles. And I'd say the theatre world has show at least a marginal improvement over how things were, say, thirty years ago. Much less seventy years ago. <br /><br />"On stage those roles are minor, and don’t generally lead anywhere, and yes, that sucks. But in life, those roles are real, and they are all-engrossing and exhausting, and women are STILL funneled toward those, socialized to see those as all-important, encouraged to go after them and made to feel bad if they aren’t." - Very interesting point. And I agree. And again, I'd say things are marginally better with respect to this than they were a few decades ago. <br /><br />"I see it happen ALL AROUND ME: women artists taking a break because they have met the love of their life and want to give it a fair shake (because if they go on that once-in-a-lifetime artist retreat, it will be their fault for not giving it a fair shake); feeling torn up inside because they are away from their kids for six weeks, for three months" - have you seen the documentary Searching for Debra Winger? It looks at this exact phenomenon, with film actresses. Alfre Woodard was on the verge of turning down a very good film role that would mean spending a couple of months in Africa, away from her kids, and her father encouraged her to take it, saying "women have always had to make arrangements." <br /><br />TJ Dawehttp://www.tjdawe.canoreply@blogger.com